4 travelers at this place:

Hit the road this morning after a fabulous stay in our B&B, Il Bivacco Frasassi, and made our way to Foligno. After a couple of wrong turns as there are heaps of road works going on and we can’t read the road signs, we finally arrived to check out the Calamita Cosmica. This is a contemporary sculpture made in secret in 1988 and preserved in the former church of the Holy Trinity in Annunziata. It is a 24m long human skeleton, precise in anatomy, with the addition of a large nose or birds beak, and a huge pencil piercing a finger. Very random.
It originally toured the country appearing in town squares overnight. The size of it is unbelievable and it was the only thing in the church as it took up the whole ground floor.
A cool pitstop on our way to our next location.Read more

It RAINED! It has not rained in Umbria since late May. Today that streak came to an end. Our hosts had the good sense to cancel the three hour walk portion of the plan. We did connect with several hilltop towns and learned about olive oil production and the medieval paper making process.

Our first hill top village was Gualdo Cattaneo -- Mary found the town photo on the web -- when we arrived it was merged with a cloud and it was pouring down. We initially took refuge in a church. Here you see all of us looking pretty pathetic listening to an interesting lecture

The round tower(s) are from 1492. We got to explore the main tower extensively. This was the high-tech development of its day. The round shape and 12 feet thick rock walls were designed to withstand the emerging war technology of the cannon.

We were supposed to take a stroll through olive orchards but there was forked lightening happening around the hill so it did not seem prudent to walk with metal umbrellas over our heads -- Sometimes discretion is the better part of valor.

So we got on the bus and drove down to an olive oil facility. Main takeaway here was the fact that this product is manipulated by the industry. From what we learned it is likely that the "olive oil" we get in the states is "at best" a mixture of various cooking oils. At worst it can be 10% olive oil and 90% petroleum. Makes me wonder what we are actually getting at Costco.

After another spectacular meal we bussed to Bevagna and learned about the paper making process using medieval technology. Mary was called into action when this watery mixture was placed in a frame and transferred to a stack in preparation for pressing to remove the water. Bad photo because it was pretty dark -- that's Mary with the white hat like thingy on her head.

I had made rash predictions about the weather and was publicly humiliated to the great satisfaction / enjoyment of the group.Read more

Busy day -- We successfully met our group of 20 at the airport and took a bus to Foligno. With a single exception we are all retired. I was used to the vibe in Rome but was surprised how much different it was in Foligno. The town is in the midst of a month long festival similar to the Palio in Siene. Flags indicating different neighborhoods line every street. We walked around town to take on the sights. Much of the central core is a walking zone and at midday there was plenty of people watching to do.

The shops are so classy -- Mary started collecting photos of clothing to share with her nieces. I like to glasses!

At one point we happened upon an event where young boys were sitting on ponies practicing with a spear. The competition between neighborhoods features riding around an oval track with a spear trying to pass the spear through various rings. I captured the moment this young man captured a ring on his spear. Of course the task gets more difficult as you are expected to do this at a full gallop and the rings get smaller in diameter as you progress around the arena. We won't be here for the event but apparently this is one of the biggest events for this region in the entire year.Read more